Re: Sublease Nightmare... Please help - Landlord Forum thread 356010

I like Joe's 2nd answer the best. You may have some good tenants there if you get some more info from them. But if you are looking for someone to blame for this situation, blame it on YOURSELF. You're the one who gave up your LL responsibilities to a tenant. NEVER do that again. And the sheriff was right. You will have to go thru your state's eviction process, (if you really want them out),because the people who are still there, have established tenancy thru the lease your former T had with them. They are not squatters. You said yourself, that at least one of them had a deposit, and paid some rent to your former T, who stole it all.

What you need to do now, is read your state's LL/T laws, and their eviction laws, and follow them from now on. But first, see if the current people there, wish to remain there, if they do, take apps from them, and decide if you want to keep them, and they pay the rent directly to you. If they need a 3rd roommate, YOU need to be the one to advertise and find one, not them. Otherwise, go to court, evict them, and start over again. And yes, you probably did/do have a lease. It's either the one you had with your former T, that was a pass-thru to the current people living there, OR, if any lease expires, and people are still living there, it usually reverts to an automatic M2M lease, and goes by whatever the state's laws are regarding terms of a lease. Again, you must read your LL/T laws to find out.

G, no one is trying to find anyone to place blame on. Your comment is not helpful. If you look at my original question I am asking specifically why the lawyers are saying the residents have no rights, but the sheriffs dept. is saying they do.

Also, if you took the time to read my other comments you would have seen that we are in the process of selling this condo. There is no reason to discuss giving the residents a lease.

Again, the residents do NOT have a lease agreement with us, they HAD an agreement with the tenant whose lease is no longer valid. There are no laws in Colorado regarding this situation according to our lawyer which is why I am asking these questions here to see if anyone has been through similar.

This situation is already stressful enough , your comments are not helpful.

Well you seem to be trying to blame the original T. For something you the Landlord should have clearly been involved with.Trusting a T to make good decisions on your behalf is just asking for trouble. Also sounds like you Lawyer is inexperienced. Or is just trying to make this situation more involved than it is. More $$$ for them. Seem pretty cut and dry just as the sheriff Dept. said, Eviction. Research squatters, and you will see how many right they have.

Tim Tom, if you read my original post, you will see that although I do give a very brief explanation of what happened, there was no complaining, only questions. I am thoroughly aware of the mistakes that I made as a new LL... If you aren't going to be helpful in answering the direct questions I asked, please move on.